Data matters: How one operator saved millions on fuel in months

Data analytics is not new and it’s not magic, Nozdryn-Plotnicki, a self-confessed data "geek" says. She leads a team of data scientists and sees their role as about making the benefits of big data real - "walking the walk".

With this in mind, she shared a tangible example of the ROI.

“One of our operators noticed that half their fleet was burning too much fuel,” she said.

This is a tough problem to solve. The engine could be dirty, flight controls could be misaligned etc. The traditional approach of eliminating the potential causes one by one turns into a “ghost chasing exercise,”Nozdryn-Plotnicki explained.

Using data science and analytics her team was able to help engineers pinpoint the problem – they analysed data on ‘healthy’ vs ‘unhealthy’ flights, quickly narrowing down what out of the tens of thousands of parameters was different. The team was able to isolate the issue to a problem with the fuel pump.

“They could then see which airplanes were likely to have a more degraded fuel pump,” she said. They had moved from reactive and even predictive to prescriptive.

“[The operator] was able to save millions of dollars in fuel over a matter of months.”

Watch the video for more of Nozdryn-Plotnicki’s insights into the power of data in aerospace.